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Publisher's Summary

A young girl from Earth falls in love with a handsome stranger, and becomes a pawn in an interstellar war.

In the distant future, the Skolian Empire rules one third of the human galaxy, and is the most powerful of all. For the ruling family has the power of telepathy, and through it, the ability to communicate faster than light, across interstellar space. But their most determined enemy, the traders, who thrive on human pain, need to interbreed with a Skolian to gain their powers. And now they have her.

Critic Reviews

"Asaro, who's a physicist, offers an intelligent exploration of possible links between telepathy and quantum physics and informs many of the scenes between the lovers with power and tenderness." (Publishers Weekly) "Solidly crafted." (Kirkus) "In this sensual tale of telepathy and love between Mayan descendants of different worlds and times, Asaro continues to develop the Skolian culture. Recommended." (Library Journal)

Story

Lots of technology, lots of romance

Somehow, this book combines heavy theoretical physics and a love story in a way that actually works. For those with more restrained natures, the sexuality might be a bit much, but it was not gratuitous and did fit into the story.
If you like a universe that hangs together and abides by it's own laws, you will enjoy this one. If detours into technical explanations of how the 'magic' works annoy you, then you may find this tedious in places. Personally, I found the explanations added to the depth of the artificial universe created by Asaro, and the characters are interesting. Overall, it's not a bad listen (although it did take me some time to get used to the reader's "male voices" - they sounded a bit odd).

Not nearly as good as Primary Inversion

I fully expected this novel to be in the same league as Primary Inversion, her first novel of the Skolian series..but it was really basically a gothic romance set in a future time. It did have a bit of science thrown in there...but mostly it was a tedious and tired romantic dreck of a novel and I was highly disappointed. Really a ridiculous book. I'll try Quantum Rose next, hopefully it will be more like Primary Inversion.

Reading in order? Chronological order?

What made the experience of listening to Catch the Lightning the most enjoyable?

I wasn't sure I followed the story right off the bat. I had just finished listening the Primary Inversion which was about Sauscony (Soz) and Jabriol Cox, the first book in the "published order" per Audible, and I couldn't determine if I should listen to it in "chronological order". I did, however, like the characters and the story. I found the characters were interesting as well as the story line once I gave up expecting to hear about Soz & Jabriol. <br/><br/>Since it involves a future traveler to Earth, I find it typical that Earth's reaction is a hostile one to capture the space craft and attempt to capture the traveler. Why is it always based on fear instead of mutual respect? If we are sending out invitations to other worlds to come visit us, then we have to have a better response than purely military and hostile. So dumb...I understand why Asaro went this route in the book b/c it is so close to what would happen in reality, but I still wish there were a better way.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Catch the Lightning?

I enjoyed the suspense of the story line.

Which character – as performed by Anna Fields – was your favorite?

I did like both Tina and Althor.

Any additional comments?

I was a bit confused by the time line and Jabriol Cox being one of the captives that the Skolian Empire was going to give up in order to get Althor back (was it a reference back to Primary Inversion?).....that didn't make any sense to me. Maybe I have to listen to it again, but it didn't seem right as I thought they mentioned him being the heir, was it during the time he truly was captive for a few weeks? I guess I need to listen to more of the stories in order to understand more.

STOP unless you want to hit a brick wall!

The stories and the audible presentation of these books is very good.
However be warned that this series just stops. For whatever reason you get pulled in, only to be crashed into a brick wall of &#8220;sorry no more audible books&#8221;. The Audible series ends but the books continue. This is not very fair if you don&#8217;t have the time to visually read the books. Sorry audible fans this is a dead end.

Sci-fi romance

Enter the Skolian Empire with the best audio book story production to introduce the very science filled saga of Teena (Tina?) and Althor. Have listened to this story a great number of times. Don't get tired of it.

Great Read

I love anything by Catherine Asaro but loved the development of the parallel of the Skolian and Maya history.

What does Anna Fields bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Fields brings the characters to life which adds to the story

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The scenes in Ralecon taking Althor back to his roots

Any additional comments?

Somehow I missed this book, I thought I had read all of the Ruby Dynasty books. I loved the development of the relationship with Tina and Althor and of them learning the similarities of the Maya and Skolian culture giving them both information about their roots. The story begins with Althor landing in an alternative Earth in the 1980's coming to Tina's rescue and finding that she is a psyon (sp?). While on Earth Althor's Jag is "snatched" from orbit by the Air Force so Tina gets help from some brainy CalTech friends to help Althor get his Jag back. Tina makes the decision to go back to Althor's world and the story tells of their developing relationship, deception of a trusted mentor and a brush with the Traders. It is a wonderful story and explores the development of the Skolian race/culture. I highly recommend it.

I liked it!

I love gadgets too, Tina!

I must admit that my encounter with this book was totally ruled by chance - I didn???t even read the review, I had one credit left and asked for something from the genre. I was expecting some standard pulp low budget thing I bump into beeing an avid fan of SF and preparing my Self for a perverse act of suspending disbelief a tad more that a sane person would allow. Not so! I wanted wonders, and that LOVELY shiver, people in strange yet self-congruent circumstances allowing me to engage in meme war, testing my memetic d-fence and got everything! Science-fiction is not about phasers and nanotech, it???s about people! Gadgets are a necessity, but I woudn???t call it a vice. Just like the lovely Tina from the novel, I am aroused by gadgets (an actreess reading that sentence did it simply perfect :8]). Fortunately, great writers tend to at least keep beeing good writers, even if they do 11???th book of saga of whatever (argh). So very true in this field, any random college stud with a background in RPG games thinks she CAN write good SF novel, "'cause, man, it's easier than realistic novels, man, just imagine a bunch of stuff and off you go!". Oh, humanity...I can spot a difference between a wannabee and a storyteller after few sentences, though English is not my native language (Poland, that religious state (yes, it IS). This one is not of those rarities you never forget, but it is at least very good. A mix of sober explanations heated by LOVELY exchanges of bodily fluids, with those bits that DO matter, as nuances of courtship rituals. Hey, Audible, I want more, I???m hooked! I hope there is a book or two more about sweet Tina and her posthuman counterpart...